Embrace Degeneracy

Chapter 4

The thunderous boom of the squad car verberated through her head as it was slammed shut. It was as if she had woken up in an alien world. Lyn had waited at her house for hours for Eddie to make it back. She had called his trailer four times with no answer. Not wanting to get too into her head, she figured she would sit and wait. It wasn’t unlike Eddie to get distracted or lose track of time, surely that was all this was. Figuring that any minute the phone would ring, or there would be a knock at the door, followed by Eddie apologizing a hundred times. 

When she had woken up with a crick in her neck and drool on her chin, curled up on her small loveseat with the early morning sun peeking through the blinds, she tried calling Eddie again. Still no answer. After checking the time, she knew Wayne would be getting to the trailer within the hour, so she picked herself up and walked over.

There was no van, but Lyn would have seen him on the way if he had been going to her place.

She ignored the uneasiness that had made a home in her gut as she walked up the stairs. She told herself it was silly to be nervous, so, graduation gift in hand, knocked on the door. 

And she saw her.

Lyn didn’t know how she got into the police cruiser. She didn’t even remember actually going into the trailer, but she had to have. Chief Powell said that she was found standing over Chrissy’s dead body just… staring at her, clutching the newspaper wrapped package. They didn’t let her talk to Wayne, and since she was over eighteen they didn’t try to call her father. Just loaded her up and took her down to the station.

There wasn’t anything she knew to tell them, but she did her best to answer their questions once they started. She couldn’t have been there long before they were called, since she knew Wayne would be making his way home soon after she headed over. Her dad was at work, so she didn’t think anyone saw her leave her house. Eddie had dropped her off before going back to his place with Chrissy. Chrissy wanted something to help her sleep, then he was supposed to come back to her place. 

“So you didn’t go to the trailer last night?”

Lyn shook her head no while she stared blankly at the table, wondering to herself if that would have changed anything. At least she would know where Eddie was, what happened. She would know if he was okay. Sitting in a cold interview room, answering the same questions over and over again, officers coming and going, did nothing to calm her. She felt lost. How could this have happened? Gone so badly so swiftly.

Not twenty-four hours ago she was preparing for an all-nighter with the person she loved, and now she was listening to the police tell her that she was an accessory to murder. That if she didn’t help them, she would be held responsible. Lyn didn’t know what happened with Eddie and Chrissy after they left her at her house. She didn’t know what happened after they made it to the trailer. If someone else came, if they got into an argument. Lyn didn’t know what to make of what she saw.

But she knew Eddie didn’t kill her.

Not Eddie.

“Alright,” Powell started, an edge in his tone, “Tell me about the book you had.”

She looked up at him quickly, dumbfounded at the question. Her voice was quiet, hardly above a whisper, Lyn couldn’t be sure that the chief sitting before her could even hear, “What?”

He dropped a leather bound book on the table with a heavy THUNK making her jump. Lyn hadn’t seen him bring it in with him last time he came in, but she was hardly fully coherent. It was old and worn, looking soft to the touch despite being the color of the bark of a tree. A thick strap went across the front from the back binding, tying to a smaller piece keeping it closed. Raw edged yellowing paper peeked out of the sides of the book. It didn’t look like something that belonged in a town like Hawkins, too bespoke, too offputting for people that choose this place as their home.